Phong Hoang
Jacobson, P.8
English, 5.0
February 24th, 2008.
Holden’s Fear of Adulthood
The novel, The Catcher in the rye was first published in 1951. The novel takes place in New York. The main Character Holden Caulfield talks about his experiences in New York. J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, has made people want to kill. For fact John Lennon was killed because of him being expected of being a phony. Chapman the murder thinking that he is Holden goes out and kills Lennon for being a phony. During Chapman’s case his defense was the catcher in the rye book. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield fears adulthood. Throughout the story he explains of why kids should enjoy childhood and why they still can. He also explains of why adults are so phony. Holden fears adulthood because of relationships and intimacy, fear of losing innocence and, and the fear of being a phony. Holden fears adulthood because he is afraid of losing his innocence. Holden tells Phoebe that he wants to prevent children growing up. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” (Ch. 22) “Holden's chief fantasy is built on this memory: he sees himself as the ‘catcher in the rye,’ the only adult in a world of children.” (Seng, pg. 2) He blames the world’s corruption on adults and he then believes that if he stops the children form growing up he will be able to preserve their innocence and save the world. , “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'F* you' signs in the world. It's impossible.” This shows that Holden wants to save the children from learning about the world and face what he had to go through. Finally Holden realizes that he can do absolutely nothing but also he cannot go anywhere to hide from it. Phoebe challenges Holden on his plan of escaping out west. As he is telling phoebe that she cannot run away, he discovers that he cannot run away either. “You can’t ever find a place a place that is nice and peaceful because here isn’t any.” The final breakdown comes near at the end of the book when he is watching phoebe on the carousel. As all the kids on the carousel try to grab the golden rings: ‘if they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them’.” (Yasuhiro, pg. 1) Holden hits the final breakdown. Being the catcher becomes obviously unrealistic. It is as this point that Holden sees that he cannot stop children form growing up and therefore losing their innocence. Holden’s fear of adulthood is because he is afraid of intimacy and relationships. He fears intimacy because complexity, unpredictability, and potential for conflict and change. At the museum of natural History Holden would like the world to be silent and frozen, because it would be then predictable and unchanging. Since people are unpredictable they challenge Holden and force him to question his confidence and senses. Holden has trouble dealing with this kind of complexity. “The thing is, most of the time when you're coming pretty close to doing it with a girl, she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never really know whether they want you to stop or whether they're just scared as hell, or whether they're just telling you to stop so that if you do go through with it, the blame will be on you, not them. Anyway, I keep stopping. The trouble is I get to feeling sorry for them” (pg 92). So he isolates him self form the world and stays away from intimacy and relationship as if he was in a shell. . Although he encounters opportunities for both physical and emotional intimacy, he bungles them all, wrapping himself in a psychological armor of critical cynicism and bitterness. Even so, Holden desperately continues searching for new relationships, always undoing himself only at the last moment. Holden is afraid of the adult world because of the phonies in the world. Holden criticizes the adults around of being a phony except for the children. Holden acts immature showing that he doesn’t want to grow up and is afraid to. “The novel's central conflict is between Holden and the adult world. It is due to Holden's unwillingness to become part of this world because most adults he knows are phonies, that is, people who claim to be something they are not.” (Alsen Pg. 3) This means, Holden doesn’t acknowledge himself, being a phony, he only sees it in others. He also mocks people like his friends who are trying to grow up and act mature like an adult. This is shown when Alsen says, “Another adolescent who acts like an adult is Holden's girlfriend Sally Hayes, whom he calls "the queen of the phonies" because she is extremely concerned about appearances and, above all, because she acts as though she were already an adult.” In the novel Holden likes to make fun of people and he is quick to judging them. When he assumes that Stradlater had given the time to Jane even thought he had no proof on what Stradlater did. Holden’s assumption of Stradlater giving the time to Jane caused a fight on which Holden received a bloody nose and damage on which he couldn’t breath form Stradlater’s knees on his chest. “He kept saying they were too new and bourgeois. That was his favorite goddamn word. He read it somewhere or heard it somewhere, everything I had was bourgeois as hell. Even my fountain pen was bourgeois. He borrowed it off me all the time, but it was bourgeois anyway” is an example of him judging someone. I think that Holden judges people because he doesn’t want to face the facts that he has a problem. So what he doses is judge others to make him feel better. Holden also has away of making him feel better by pretending that he is annoyed by adult comments. “Take most people, they're crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they're always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddamn horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.” Holden also believes that he can stop the children from being phonies by stopping them from growing into adults. Holden is afraid of adulthood because he doesn’t want to be the phony that all the adults are. Even though Holden judges other people of being phonies he never stops and observes his self. Holden continually lies about himself for example, on the train to New York; he perpetrates a mean-spirited and needless prank on Mrs. Morrow. He’d like us to believe that he is a paragon of virtue in a world of phoniness, but that simply isn’t the case. Although he’d like to believe that the world is a simple place and innocence rests on one side of the fence, while phoniness rests on the other.
In conclusion the catcher in the rye is a great story written by J.D Salinger. I recommend this book to anyone who can read because it involves a lot of thinking of others and yourself. Even though Holden Fears adulthood I think that he will be able to overcome his problems of issues and become mature enough to the face that he will not be able to save children form becoming into adults. Many other people also think that Holden will be able to live and socialize with the adults around him. Holden Fears adult hood because of the fearing of loosing his innocence, sexuality and relationships and the fear of being a phony.
Jacobson, P.8
English, 5.0
February 24th, 2008.
Holden’s Fear of Adulthood
The novel, The Catcher in the rye was first published in 1951. The novel takes place in New York. The main Character Holden Caulfield talks about his experiences in New York. J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, has made people want to kill. For fact John Lennon was killed because of him being expected of being a phony. Chapman the murder thinking that he is Holden goes out and kills Lennon for being a phony. During Chapman’s case his defense was the catcher in the rye book. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield fears adulthood. Throughout the story he explains of why kids should enjoy childhood and why they still can. He also explains of why adults are so phony. Holden fears adulthood because of relationships and intimacy, fear of losing innocence and, and the fear of being a phony.
Holden fears adulthood because he is afraid of losing his innocence. Holden tells Phoebe that he wants to prevent children growing up. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” (Ch. 22) “Holden's chief fantasy is built on this memory: he sees himself as the ‘catcher in the rye,’ the only adult in a world of children.” (Seng, pg. 2) He blames the world’s corruption on adults and he then believes that if he stops the children form growing up he will be able to preserve their innocence and save the world. , “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'F* you' signs in the world. It's impossible.” This shows that Holden wants to save the children from learning about the world and face what he had to go through. Finally Holden realizes that he can do absolutely nothing but also he cannot go anywhere to hide from it. Phoebe challenges Holden on his plan of escaping out west. As he is telling phoebe that she cannot run away, he discovers that he cannot run away either. “You can’t ever find a place a place that is nice and peaceful because here isn’t any.” The final breakdown comes near at the end of the book when he is watching phoebe on the carousel. As all the kids on the carousel try to grab the golden rings: ‘if they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them’.” (Yasuhiro, pg. 1) Holden hits the final breakdown. Being the catcher becomes obviously unrealistic. It is as this point that Holden sees that he cannot stop children form growing up and therefore losing their innocence.
Holden’s fear of adulthood is because he is afraid of intimacy and relationships. He fears intimacy because complexity, unpredictability, and potential for conflict and change. At the museum of natural History Holden would like the world to be silent and frozen, because it would be then predictable and unchanging. Since people are unpredictable they challenge Holden and force him to question his confidence and senses. Holden has trouble dealing with this kind of complexity. “The thing is, most of the time when you're coming pretty close to doing it with a girl, she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never really know whether they want you to stop or whether they're just scared as hell, or whether they're just telling you to stop so that if you do go through with it, the blame will be on you, not them. Anyway, I keep stopping. The trouble is I get to feeling sorry for them” (pg 92). So he isolates him self form the world and stays away from intimacy and relationship as if he was in a shell. . Although he encounters opportunities for both physical and emotional intimacy, he bungles them all, wrapping himself in a psychological armor of critical cynicism and bitterness. Even so, Holden desperately continues searching for new relationships, always undoing himself only at the last moment.
Holden is afraid of the adult world because of the phonies in the world. Holden criticizes the adults around of being a phony except for the children. Holden acts immature showing that he doesn’t want to grow up and is afraid to. “The novel's central conflict is between Holden and the adult world. It is due to Holden's unwillingness to become part of this world because most adults he knows are phonies, that is, people who claim to be something they are not.” (Alsen Pg. 3) This means, Holden doesn’t acknowledge himself, being a phony, he only sees it in others. He also mocks people like his friends who are trying to grow up and act mature like an adult. This is shown when Alsen says, “Another adolescent who acts like an adult is Holden's girlfriend Sally Hayes, whom he calls "the queen of the phonies" because she is extremely concerned about appearances and, above all, because she acts as though she were already an adult.” In the novel Holden likes to make fun of people and he is quick to judging them. When he assumes that Stradlater had given the time to Jane even thought he had no proof on what Stradlater did. Holden’s assumption of Stradlater giving the time to Jane caused a fight on which Holden received a bloody nose and damage on which he couldn’t breath form Stradlater’s knees on his chest. “He kept saying they were too new and bourgeois. That was his favorite goddamn word. He read it somewhere or heard it somewhere, everything I had was bourgeois as hell. Even my fountain pen was bourgeois. He borrowed it off me all the time, but it was bourgeois anyway” is an example of him judging someone. I think that Holden judges people because he doesn’t want to face the facts that he has a problem. So what he doses is judge others to make him feel better. Holden also has away of making him feel better by pretending that he is annoyed by adult comments. “Take most people, they're crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they're always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddamn horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.” Holden also believes that he can stop the children from being phonies by stopping them from growing into adults. Holden is afraid of adulthood because he doesn’t want to be the phony that all the adults are. Even though Holden judges other people of being phonies he never stops and observes his self. Holden continually lies about himself for example, on the train to New York; he perpetrates a mean-spirited and needless prank on Mrs. Morrow. He’d like us to believe that he is a paragon of virtue in a world of phoniness, but that simply isn’t the case. Although he’d like to believe that the world is a simple place and innocence rests on one side of the fence, while phoniness rests on the other.
In conclusion the catcher in the rye is a great story written by J.D Salinger. I recommend this book to anyone who can read because it involves a lot of thinking of others and yourself. Even though Holden Fears adulthood I think that he will be able to overcome his problems of issues and become mature enough to the face that he will not be able to save children form becoming into adults. Many other people also think that Holden will be able to live and socialize with the adults around him. Holden Fears adult hood because of the fearing of loosing his innocence, sexuality and relationships and the fear of being a phony.